As a first-year student, one is obligated to take “General Studies 145-146: The First-Year Experience,” otherwise known as Encounters. The two-semester-long course is intended as an “introduction to the liberal arts and the academic construction of knowledge,” in which students meet on a t...

Clothing communicates a lot about the individual who wears it: personal style, political affiliation, favorite bands, a preference for wool over fleece or stripes instead of dots.
What if, in addition to this list, clothing could convey something more meaningful–such as recognition of the broad...

For the first 18 years of his life, wrestler Hudson Taylor didn't think he knew anybody who was gay. Since graduating from the University of Maryland in 2010, however, he has spent much of his time standing in front of college athletes around the country discussing the importance of recognizing and supporting...

Junior Marcos Garza* is in many ways a typical Whitman student: he's studious, a member of a fraternity and active in campus clubs. Yet there's a part of him that only a small number of his friends know about:
"I guess, to tell you, I'm gay," he says hesitantly.
Garza's experience of being in the closet at Whitman may not be as atypical as it seems. While...

"I'm not very good with my speech or delivery. I just got a little lucky."
These are the modest words of State Representative Maureen Walsh (R), whose speech in defense of gay marriage on the floor of the legislature has garnered over 1.2 million views on YouTube.
Walsh spoke to the Whitman community...

The Washington State House of Representatives voted 55 to 43 on Wednesday, Feb. 8 to allow same sex marriages. This, following the senate voting in favor of same sex marriage last week and Governor Christine Gregoire's pledge to sign the bill, makes Washington poised to be the seventh U.S. state, in...

Queer kids growing up in the United States right now are living through "the best of times and the worst of times" according to visiting speaker Dan Savage. Although same-sex couples are gaining rights and awareness across the nation, many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) individuals still...